2020 End of Season / Playoffs

[slaw]

I haven't watched closely, but McMillan seems like a very Dwane Casey type of coach. His team plays hard and pretty well, but his career playoff record is abysmal and Indy fans generally don't like him from what I gather. May be a case of trying to replace a pretty good coach with a better coach. Still, tough for McMillan because Indy's had health issues for quite a while. They've had a hard time building any kind of year over year momentum.

People can point to the playoff record but also need to acknowledge that they had no Sabonis this year (their best player), no Oladipo last year (their best player) and lost the year before to the Cavs in 7 and came a shot or two from beating the NBA finalists. I think Indy fans are a bit delusional that another coach would have had more playoff success with that roster but maybe it is a Casey situation: good regular season coach, bad playoff coach.

[chris]

I haven't watched closely, but McMillan seems like a very Dwane Casey type of coach. His team plays hard and pretty well, but his career playoff record is abysmal and Indy fans generally don't like him from what I gather. May be a case of trying to replace a pretty good coach with a better coach. Still, tough for McMillan because Indy's had health issues for quite a while. They've had a hard time building any kind of year over year momentum.

casey's a solid comp i think. his guys play hard for him and he consistently overachieves in the regular season, particularly considering the injuries his teams seem to be deal with. some of those portland squads were decimated and still up around 50 wins in the west.

at the same time his teams don't win much in the playoffs and the fan-bases complain constantly about his rotations and play calling.

[KeonClark]

I haven't watched closely, but McMillan seems like a very Dwane Casey type of coach. His team plays hard and pretty well, but his career playoff record is abysmal and Indy fans generally don't like him from what I gather. May be a case of trying to replace a pretty good coach with a better coach. Still, tough for McMillan because Indy's had health issues for quite a while. They've had a hard time building any kind of year over year momentum.

Morris is a dumb ass. This is well known. It's a weird play but somebody hunting an ankle injury almost always is. Think of the Kawhi incident with Pachulia - what if Morris successfully got his foot under Luka's bum ankle and the NBA lost Luka for a year? This would be huge, the only difference now is that Morris was unsuccessful so this is mostly laughed at and his intent is debated. But going after a guys ankles in basketball is basically a cross check to the head in hockey - it's just way harder to be definitive about intent.

Is this like the player comp rule where you can only compare him to other bald, black men?

[planetmars]

The strange thing is extending him and then firing him. That's just bananas. Unless they are some how back paying him for his services but that's not something small market teams would do. Something bad must have happened following the sweep.

But really getting swept two years in a row in the first round is pretty terrible. Even Orlando got a game off in its series this year and last year (and they had injuries too).

[G__Deane]

Yes, a common play in basketball is to make a bee line from Morris' position on the court and run directly behind the opposing point guard and then awkwardly extend one leg out at an acute angle so that your foot 'accidentally' lands on the guy's injured ankle. LOL. Of course it was intentional. It may not have been intentional in the sense it was planned but there was no basketball play being made there.

Exactly, you could tell how he extended that that play was entirely on purpose. And look at who it was, a Morris brother.
So Luka has a racist slur directed at him and then targeted for a dirty play and the NBA .... is silent

[bertarapsfan]

I think Indiana outplayed there regular season expectation the last 3 years. Last 2 years they lost their best regular season player before playoffs and when they were healthy took the cavs to 7. Theres talent on that roster and I dont know how many free agent coaches are going to do better then mcmillian. Bulls should try to snag him and maybe Griffin can stay here another year.

[slaw]

Exactly, you could tell how he extended that that play was entirely on purpose. And look at who it was, a Morris brother.
So Luka has a racist slur directed at him and then targeted for a dirty play and the NBA .... is silent

I am wondering if the NBA might suspend him given the hypocrisy and cowardice of not even fining Harrell and now Doncic basically saying he's taking verbal abuse all game. We'll see but if nothing is done I can see another big Cuban fine coming after the series. Mavs fans are pissed and I can imagine Cuban is steaming right now.

[The Great One]

I think Indiana outplayed there regular season expectation the last 3 years. Last 2 years they lost their best regular season player before playoffs and when they were healthy took the cavs to 7. Theres talent on that roster and I dont know how many free agent coaches are going to do better then mcmillian. Bulls should try to snag him and maybe Griffin can stay here another year.

They got bounced in the 1st round the last 4 years. Swept the last 2 years. That's why he got fired. You can use the injury excuse all you want, they can't even win ONE game? they made the Miami Heat looked like a powerhouse team. Butler last night clearly wasn't right and the Heat still demolished them.

As for the Bulls, hell no I don't want McMillan in Chicago. Enough of all these recycled coaches.

[KeonClark]

I think Indiana outplayed there regular season expectation the last 3 years. Last 2 years they lost their best regular season player before playoffs and when they were healthy took the cavs to 7. Theres talent on that roster and I dont know how many free agent coaches are going to do better then mcmillian. Bulls should try to snag him and maybe Griffin can stay here another year.

Pacers are like those old Raptor teams from 2013-15. Regular season fools gold. They even play the same way, its pretty ugly basketball, a lot of iso and hopeless jumpers over a guy. Dipo and Brogdon are like Lowry and Derozan as underrated Sabonis (JV) runs up and down the court

[bertarapsfan]

Pacers are like those old Raptor teams from 2013-15. Regular season fools gold. They even play the same way, its pretty ugly basketball, a lot of iso and hopeless jumpers over a guy. Dipo and Brogdon are like Lowry and Derozan as underrated Sabonis (JV) runs up and down the court

I see the Pacers as the early DeRozan lowry raptors era. They went expected to win any of those playoff series. They outplayed teams with better talent over 82 games. Now they have brogdon, Oladipo, warren, sabonis, Turner. They havent got the play all those guys in a playoff series yet. Sure they may think a new coach can get them into a 2nd round but I don't see many coaches out there who can raise their ceiling. It about having all the guys in the court imo dont think it comes down to coaching. If Oladipo has a problem with Nate going into a f.a next season then i can see that but I don't think on court reason warrant the firing

[Demographic Shift]

Pretty wild 24 hours....

While we may not share another persons POV its at least gratifying to know that some pretty intense topics can be batted around between sides without the fear of a knock on the door in the middle of the night from the authorities.

Its time to rally around the one thing that unites us all..

FUCK BOSTON

[SkywalkerAC]

So today's game has been postponed?

[planetmars]

So today's game has been postponed?

Yes, no games today.

Games are apparently resuming tomorrow.. but I suspect that will be the games from yesterday not today. I would therefore think Saturday for our game but nothing formal has been announced yet.

[DanH]

Seems to still be up in the air whether first games played will be Friday or Saturday, which would put our game either Saturday or Sunday. Of course, there is also the possibility the meeting today between owners and players goes poorly and the whole thing falls apart. But I suspect playing this weekend is the most likely outcome.

[G__Deane]

Pretty wild 24 hours....

While we may not share another persons POV its at least gratifying to know that some pretty intense topics can be batted around between sides without the fear of a knock on the door in the middle of the night from the authorities.

Its time to rally around the one thing that unites us all..

FUCK BOSTON

That may be true for the most part around here but I'm not so sure overall. If you're active on newspaper sites, there's a totally different experience. Many PC stories don't allow comments at all so only the parent company views can be heard.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article...hletes-notice/

Every single comment is reviewed now before posting. I wondered if it was just me for some reason and posted "Is every comment moderated now?" That exact question was "waiting for moderation" and then "Content disabled"
Why?
It says "violated community guidelines" aka don't dare question....

The CBC site bans commenters for the most benign things that are critical of their masters opinions, especially political parties that keep them afloat.

Free speech or the ability for open discourse (which I agree is not free reign to post whatever you want without consequences) is dying a slow and painful death as they seek to control people's thoughts and minds. Only "radicals" care that we're not that far from those knocks in the night that you referenced.

But yah, f the Celtics